Re-thinking Canada for the 21st century.

• Author: Oliver, Donald H.

Donald H. Oliver was appointed to the Senate in 1990. The article is based on a speech given at the 67th Annual Couchiching Conference on Re-thinking Canada for the 21st Century on Sunday, August 9, 1998 at Orillia, Ontario.

This article argues that to be truly Canadian in the 21st century means we must find within ourselves a new tolerance. We must fight a latent desire or need to be racist. Federal politicians who have responsibility for immigration and multicultural policy must ask how can we lead a physically diverse collectivity of Canadians from a mutual recognition of a shared relationship to something called "a nation".

For Canada to survive as a united country, radical surgery is required in two major public policy areas - immigration and multiculturalism. There must also be a massive re-thinking of who we are and what we have become.

Canadians must find the courage to re-evaluate the very notion of what it means to be Canadian, the very fabric of our identity - our symbols, our values, our legacy. We must abandon the established traditions of white, anglo-franco dominant culture. We must accept an identity that includes "difference" - an identity that is fluid, changing, migrating and that reflects the lives of all Canadians, and not just of a white majority.

Migrancy is a fact of life for Canadians. We move for jobs, for better schools, for better communities. Many of our children move between two or more homes. Canada is a country settled by immigrants, first from a predominantly European origin, then from all corners of the globe. Each one of us comes from a tradition of courage and faith and a common future. Our stories tell the stories of Canada. Some are over 100 years old, and others a day.

One problem is that we are reluctant to let go of our European British/French heritage. This tenacious attachment to European traditions is manifested in our history of immigration policy.

In the 1930s, non British immigrants, including Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were denied entry on the grounds their admittance would alter the essentially "British character" of the country. This sentiment was endorsed by Prime Minister Mackenzie King who said: "We must always remember that Canada is a white man's country". After the war came change in Canada's immigration policies and with that change, a new generation of immigrants. Canada continues to change toward a population that is multi-ethnic and migratory.

Statistics Canada reports that Canada...